Inventory range is key to in-store shopper engagement and new traffic attraction in retail in my view.
In the stationery category, Typo has been demonstrating this with terrific success for years as has kid’s store Smiggle and as did in their earlier days girl-targeted Kikki.k.
I think expanding the range of stationery we carry is key to stationery sales growth in newsagencies. This is why I like the Harry Potter themed journals and related stationery items – people can buy them for beyond their intended function.
Serving multiple purposes is important to maximising the ‘stationery’ opportunity. I say ‘stationery’ because we need to not look it as stationery, not traditional stationery at least.
I was talking with a newsagent last week about these Harry Potter journals and they said they have enough journals. While they do have enough of journal journals, they have no licenced product journals, journals that can be bought by collectors and for brand fans, not because the products are journals.
It is important that a chunck of our stationery budget is spent on licenced products and not on purpose outcomes. The stationery world has changed ing many ways and this is one of them.